Who Are the Money Men?

By Matthew Mosk
There's a lot of new information emerging today on who, exactly, has sunk more than $375 million into presidential campaigns over the course of the past year.

Two separate reports published today offered insights into those who write checks to presidential candidates. Two groups that monitor political giving, the Campaign Finance Institute and Public Citizen, released a joint study that found more than half the money raised in the presidential race was raised by people who work in one of three professional fields: law, high finance, and real estate.

Republicans had more help than Democrats from those in the real estate and lobbying industries, the report found. Democrats received more support from lawyers and law firms, and from the TV, movies and music industry. Democrats and Republicans were both successful in recruiting support from the considerable number of securities and investment industry fundraisers.

"Only an extremely thin slice of Americans are mobilizing their financial and social networks to finance the presidential race," the group's report concluded.

Meanwhile, the Nielsen Company, of television ratings fame, has looked at where donors from various demographic groups send their checks and determined that Democrats are doing much better than they did four years ago among groups they call "Blue Bloods," "Upper Crust," and "Movers and Shakers." The designations are based on a variety of factors including where they live, their education, and their personal income. (Upper Crusters, for instance, live in the nation's most exclusive neighborhoods and are typically empty-nesters who are age 55-and-older.)

As to the specific candidates, the ratings firm found that Republican Rudy Giuliani attracted more financial support from urban and metro areas, while Mitt Romney raised more money in the suburbs from a demographic group Nielsen calls "White Picket Fences." Democrat Hillary Clinton did better in households with large numbers of children, while Barack Obama raised more from younger donors and those in blue collar jobs.